


the trickster god

by everyours



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Infinity War spoilers, M/M, Most people live, gamora lives, infinity war fix it fic, loki and peter parker is the friendship the mcu needs, loki lives, loki pretended to be bruce, tony stark just wants a nap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2019-05-13 09:55:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14746628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everyours/pseuds/everyours
Summary: What if Loki had disguised himself as the Hulk on the Statesman? What if it was Loki, not Bruce, that had got thrown to Earth?Light hearted post-infinity war fic





	the trickster god

Things that aren’t important:  
\- Thor used Stormbreaker to command the Bifrost to take himself to Thanos.  
\- Thor, Tony and Nebula released Gamora from the soul stone.  
\- Thanos’s children finally got their revenge (With Thor using the Stormbreaker to land the killing blow.)  
\- They released all the trapped souls, returning the universe to its original population.  
\- All the soul stones were then destroyed.

Things that are important:  
\- Loki disguised himself as the Hulk and then as Banner, in order to save the actual Banner from Thanos on the Statesman.  
\- He was then thrown to Earth and assumed the worst of his brother’s and Heimdall’s fates.  
\- Loki-as-Banner tried his hardest to save his brothers friends while at the same time tried to piss off Tony Stark as much as possible (Old habits tend to die hard).  
\- Thor then reappeared in Wakanda which was great but also how the hell was Loki going to get out of this one, ah shit.

 

To make things even better, the actual Banner showed up as well, on the spaceship with the rest of the Asgardian refugees, Valkyrie, and Korg. This was also right before Thor had made it back to Earth, with most of the Space Avengers, that miserable excuse of a sorcerer, Stark (who’d survived, unfortunately) and an actual, literal child. Loki counted himself lucky that Thor was such a good ruler and went straight into the refugee ship to make sure his people were okay (well, as okay as they could be in the possible circumstances).

Bruce and Valkyrie emerged from where they’d been speaking with whoever owned this land. They ended up in the small crowd of people who’d converged in between spaceships. The Guardians of the Galaxy had been reunited. He’d been informed of the name. Loki wasn’t sure it was up to scratch - seeing as the galaxy hadn’t been guarded enough to stop Thanos before he’d wiped out half the universe. They were stood off to one side, talking intently about something or other. Loki didn’t really care.

He grimaced slightly as the real Bruce called out to Stark.  
 “Tony! It’s so good to see you! It’s been so long!” Stark looked confused and said,  
 “Bruce, I last spoke to you a few days ago..” as he distractedly glanced around at the others. It seemed like he was looking for someone that wasn't there. Then he locked eyes with Loki, who’d didn’t think fast enough to run far, far away and/or turn himself into a plant, and an expression of weary surprise filled his face.  
 “What the hell….?”  
Well, everyone seemed safe. Why shouldn’t Loki have some fun before they all turned and tried to kill him again? He’d been enjoying theatre during his time as King of Asgard. Might as well put those skills to good use, he reasoned with himself. Loki put on his best ‘Bruce Banner confused expression™’ and strode forwards towards the actual Bruce.  
 “What, what the hell, Loki, it’s not cool to pretend to be me!” he says. The best form of defence is attack. Probably.

The incredibly confused expression on Bruce’s face was priceless - and partially made the whole situation worth it. The man stammered out some incomprehensible syllables before saying to the crowd at large,  
 “No, I’m Bruce! Loki stayed on the Statesman with Thor!”  
 “No, he didn’t, you abandoned Thor and ran off onto the other ship, pretending to be me,” Loki retaliated. Sometimes his reputation was a good thing.  
 “Yeah, you were meant to stay on the Statesman, Bruce, or whoever you are. Oh my god you could be Hela in disguise! Or the Grandmaster! That’d be freaky. Anyways you showed up right before we left – you said Thor had told you to come with us,” Korg, who’d also showed up at some point, interjects. At this point, Stark looks like he’s about to pass out from exhaustion and would rather go another round with Thanos than deal with this nonsense. Such fun.

 “I don’t see what the problem is. I’d much rather have two Bruce’s than a Loki,” Valkyrie says. That’s fair enough. He did try and stab her. And cause her to have flashbacks to the worst time of her life. It still stings though. The two Bruce’s then continue to bicker - Loki has spent his whole life winding Thor up so, this is merely child’s play.

Unfortunately, Quill decides speaks up.  
 “Hey, I have an idea. Wouldn’t Loki revert back to how he usually is if we killed him? It’s a 50/50 chance we get the right guy.” Loki hopes he is joking. As if Quill could kill him. His girlfriend, however… he didn’t want to risk it.  
 “No, no don’t do that! That’s not a good idea,” Bruce says hastily.  
 “Well we know that’s the real Bruce. Our Loki would never waste an opportunity to fake his own death,” a voice speaks up from behind them. Some of the Asgardians had ventured out of the ship to find out what was going on. And, oh excellent, Thor had followed them out. Parker looks like he’s about to faint when he sees Loki’s brother. Loki wondered how quickly he could sprint away. Perhaps he could steal one of their ships...

He’s still working out escape plans in his head when his brother’s booming and slightly confused voice asks what’s going on.  
 “Well, we think one of them is the real Bruce, and the other one is Loki” Tony explains. Thor properly looks at the group and his expression changes from ‘noble king suffering from large amounts of grief’ to ‘small puppy who’s just seen its friends that he thought were dead’. It’s an interesting emotional journey.  
 “Loki?! Bruce?!” He moves eagerly towards them both, who’d got closer to each other as they were fighting, and sweeps them both up into a somewhat crushing hug.

Turns out Bruce is a lot smaller than Loki and Thor really is quite strong.  
 “Urgh, brother, you truly are the worst.” Loki mutters as he turns back into himself. Thor simply beams and says,  
 “I missed you too, Loki.” Loki hides his smile, he does have a reputation to keep after all, but doesn’t let go of Thor for a while. Eventually, he backs off, as he’s pretty sure Bruce has passed out from where he’d been crushed by Thor’s embrace.

Loki goes to stand by Val, who hits him, hard, scowls at him and says,  
 “Don’t you dare fake your own death again, or I will kill you.”  
Then she wanders off, probably to find some alcohol. That seems like a good idea. It’s been a very long week. Loki looks back to his brother who was now gazing lovingly into Bruce’s eyes. The group of people had mostly dissipated once Loki had revealed himself but still. Really? He coughs pointedly but all Thor does is turn around and say,  
 “We were all on Sakaar, Loki. We had to suffer through you and the Grandmaster.” Bruce looks slightly confused but nods earnestly. Loki never was going to live that one down.

He turns to leave, perhaps to go and find Val or go into the Asgardians ship, but realises Stark is still there. He looks slightly shell-shocked.  
 “Why are you still here?” Loki asks him. It shows how preoccupied Stark’s thoughts are when he actually answers Loki’s question.  
 “Because Steve’s over there and, for once, you’re probably less likely to try and kill me.” Loki grins, a dagger momentarily in his hand, and Stark’s quick to add, “Wait, no, that wasn't a challenge.”  
 “You’re so kind. Why don’t we go over and introduce ourselves? I’m sure that’d go down well.”  
 “What? No. No way.”  
 “C’mon, we’re practically best friends. You hugged me! You even said you’d missed me!”  
 “That’s when I thought you were Bruce, you asshole.” Stark glares at him for a bit more but seems to call Loki’s bluff and goes over to Rogers by himself. As much as he’d love to overhear that conversation, he’d come to value his safety even more as of late and so decides against it.

 “Um, Mr. Loki, sir? I was wondering uh..” Loki starts as a small voice pipes up from beside him. It’s Peter, the younger one. “I was just wondering why you came down to earth as Bruce? And like, how you did it, cos shape-shifting’s really cool! If I could shapeshift I’d totally make myself taller or give myself a beard or turn myself into a spider - then I’d really be a spider-man!” He seems to realise he’s rambling and comes to a stop but Loki’s pleased that someone’s taking interest in his plans, even if it is a child.

By this point, Bruce and Thor have left, hand in hand. They’re so sweet it’s sickening, Loki thinks, though he’s glad that his brother is happy. The kid’s sat on a rock, and so Loki settles down on the ground before saying,  
 “Well, when Thanos was approaching our ship, I was the only one who had properly faced him before. Banner had wanted to stay, to protect Thor, and our people but I knew Thanos’s wrath and feared that he wouldn’t survive. I may not be the best person but Thor is, and he deserves no more loss in his life. So, I disguised myself as Thor and told Banner to leave the ship with Valkyrie and the others. After they had left, I returned to Thor and Heimdall and used a clone of myself to fool Thanos into thinking he had killed me. At the same time, I turned into the Hulk and attacked Thanos. It was infeasible that I would be able to take him down; he was too strong, and it took too much energy to create my clone and the Hulk. But I hoped to at least give Thor & Heimdall time to escape. However, Heimdall probably knew what I was doing, although he didn’t say anything to Thor. With his dying words, he used the Bifrost to send me - as the Hulk - to Earth.”

He looks at the kid to see if he’s still listening and is pleased and slightly surprised to see that he’s entranced by Loki’s tale. He continues.  
 “Because Heimdall has - had - an awful sense of humour he crash-landed me into that fool’s (he calls himself a magic user!) building. From there, as Bruce, because no-one in their right mind would’ve trusted me as myself, I warned as many people as possible about Thanos. I thought my brother was dead and attempted to help Earth in whatever way I could. I didn't have the strength for a realistically strong Hulk. So, I made it seem like the Hulk didn’t want to appear. I fought in the battle as Bruce, as well as used my magic to protect and defeat. Then after all that happened, I ended up here, with you. Why are you here anyway? Don’t you know what I’ve done? Why aren’t you scared?” Peter seems to think about his questions for a moment before replying with,  
 “Well, Thor trusts you. And you did technically help save Earth. Hey! Maybe that makes you an Avenger. And also my spidey sense isn’t going off so I know I’m safe.” There’s far too much to dissect from his words. Loki feels old and so very tired.  
 “I think being an Avenger is pushing it. What do you mean by “spider sense”?”

 “Well,” Peter says, “It all began when I got bitten by this radioactive spider...”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!! this is my first fic and i had so much fun writing it  
> any comments or kudos are greatly appreciated  
> you can find me on tumblr @ilovevalkyrie


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